Dear Coworking Community, This post is a follow up to the post from Alex, Jerome, and Jacob about the coworking owners retreat in Santa Monica at the end of Sept./ beginning of October calling for volunteers to help improve coworking.com (http://bit.ly/neWCar; and appended to the end of this email).
I am managing the "Research" task, and I wanted to tell people more about it so you have some idea whether you want to volunteer to help with research (if you haven't already volunteered). This is just a basic outline. Please email me for the longer version if you are or might be interested in helping out. And PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR COWORKING-SPACE MEMBERS to give them the opportunity to get involved, since it’s really important we have their input/help with designing the research (and since many space members are top-quality researchers in their own right, and some are already involved in studying coworking)! The purpose of the "Research" is to collect, analyze, organize, and disseminate high-quality scientific data about coworking and its relationship to work psychology and human behavior (motivation, performance, and subjective well-being). The reasons for doing this are manifold, but include (a) more accurate and compelling communication with the public and the media about the value of coworking; (b) teach/educate coworking-space owners and designers about best practices in coworking-space design with respect to its contribution to human/social capital; (c) contribute to the body of scientific knowledge to our understanding of workplace design and human performance and well-being. For the research to be top quality, we need several kinds of volunteers, from experienced researchers, to coworking space owners who want to have a hand in deciding what kinds of questions are asked and answered, to coworking space members who provide unique insight into the value of coworking and what we need to know more about. SPECIFICALLY, we'll need people to (a) be part of a coworking space ETHICS COMMITTEE, (b) help in top-level design of the research projects, c) provisionally volunteer their coworking spaces as potential research sites, including helping to recruit participants from their coworking membership and helping to provide incentives to participants such as discounts on membership (depending of course on the level of participation). We especially need volunteers from non- English speaking countries to help make this research as international / cross-cultural as possible. There are seven parts to the longer version of this email, in case that helps you decide whether you want the longer version: (1) The purpose of the research; (2) The scope of the research, (3) Initial and potential future research projects, (4) Development of a coworking community research ETHICS committee, that is, an "Internal Review Board" (IRB), (5) What do you get out of helping? (6) Getting involved: who and how (including for the ethics committee), and (7) My own research related background. Let me know ([email protected]) if you’d like the know more and I’ll send you a more detailed version of this email, including details on how to volunteer! If you've already volunteered, I'll soon send that longer email to you. Looking forward to the collaboration! Best, Will -- Will Bennis Locus Workspace Krakovská 22, 110 00 Praha 1 http://www.locusworkspace.com Tel: +420 223 017 593 Mob: +420 604 776 440 Twitter: @locusworkspace Facebook: facebook.com/locusworkspace Blog: blog.locusworkspace.com > On Oct 4, 4:39 pm,AlexHillman <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hello Coworking World! > > > As promised, we've returned from the weekend in Santa Monica with some tasks > > and topics for further discussion. Our #1 priority for holding this weekend > > was to have some focused discussion on what the global coworking community > > wasn't doing - what the biggest opportunities to work together to further > > coworking for everyone are. > > > We're consolidating everybody's notes (and lots of photos as well) because a > > LOT of amazing information was shared and we want you to have access to as > > much of that as possible. > > > In the mean time, want to share an overview of the weekend and some of the > > results in the form of a call to action! > > > *Here is the "fast-forward" summary of the actionable results of the > > weekend.* > > > *More background on how we got there is included below. The "directors cut" > > below provides more background and insight. If you have questions, please be > > sure to read that as well before replying.* > > > 1. Coworking's "ad-hoc" community has generated great projects in the past, > > but we never had a consistent method in place to maintain them. The > > following is what we've come up to address that: > > > - help people build a team first, then execute tasks and topics. > > - we'll have a group of 'coordinators' (initially, myselfJeromeand > > Jacob), and teams of managers andvolunteers. coordinators are a resource > > to > > the teams, and teams focus on their topics/projects > > > 2. We came up with a few goals to achieve, and some people have stepped up > > to work on them already. Some of these topic focuses are awareness, > > research, group buying/leverage, best practices documentation. This is not > > all-encompassing, it's just a start. > > > Additionally, coworking.com leaves room for improvement as a tool to house > > high-value material that's currently buried in the wiki, google group, etc. > > This means we need to both determine the [CMS] platform, and migrate that > > content via the above mentioned teams. > > > This form will allow you to sign up for a team, either as a volunteer or a > > manager:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlG... > > > 3. While we do *not* at all plan to incorporate an association at this time, > > we have recognized the importance of some functional entity just to be able > > to hold funds, as we now have leftover "community funds" from projects being > > held by multiple members of the community without any clear path to > > distribution for services such as hosting coworking.com, etc. A team is > > heading up the work to determine what options we have and what remaining > > questions exist before we come back to the group. That working group is > > researching solutions, not making an autonomous decision. > > > *Directors Cut Weekend Summary* > > > The attendance was diverse, and a lot of the topics raised tense > > conversations. What we all agreed was that there were common goals that we > > could work on together even considering our differences of opinion. Apart > > from dense sharing of our experiences and knowledge, this weekend generated > > the need for two primary tools: > > > 1) an easy & common organizational structure - not an organization, though - > > for tactical teams to form and execute coworking related projects. > > > Many new projects form and quickly die, and others run because of the > > ongoing effort of contributors. We want to make sure that any time a new > > coworking project (not a space, but a resource or tool to help the coworking > > community) is forming, people can do it in a way so that an effort has a > > chance to survive. > > > 2) an effort to improve our living repository of knowledge at coworking.com > > and > > related properties (like the google group, the wiki, the blog) > > > The biggest underutilized toolset we have is coworking.com, etc, and we want > > to make it a rallying point for all of the things we have to share. It's a > > big task, but more then big *it's continuous and will never be "finished".* > > > Again, each team needs a manager that will take on the responsibility of > > being accountable for the team as a whole. Consider this very carefully > > before taking on this commitment. How the individual teams are organized is > > left up to that team. We'll work together to learn from and develop a plan > > for how the teams come together and how everything is presented on the > > website as information is gathered and shared. > > > *What it's Not* > > > This tactical model lets small teams form that contain leadership and > >volunteers. That's it. There was a lot of discussion around a "coworking > > association" or an organization. While this model provides organization, it > > is not THE organization. It is simply a mechanism for people to get more > > done, and that benefits everybody who contributes and participates - just > > like this group always has operated, but with more action & orientation. > > > We did, however, determine that it would be universally valuable to > > consolidate the now "leftover" funds from things like the > > coworking.comfundraiser and even this weekend's event to make that > > available for topic > > projects. A team is heading up the work to determine what options we have > > and what remaining questions exist before we come back to the group. That > > working group (myself,Jerome, Bill Jacobson, Iris Kavanagh) is researching > > solutions, not making an autonomous decision. > > > *The First Topics* > > > Some of our initial projects are broken out by "topic" leaders. Each topic > > group will contain a topic "manager" as well as a team ofvolunteers. In > > order for a topic team to form, there needs to be one person who "owns" the > > topic as well as supporting people to help contribute to working on the > > topic. > > > To get started we want to take on a few specific topics and improve the > > coworking.com website by the Coworking Unconference in Austin during SXSW in > > March. This isn't all of the teams, or all of the work, nor is it an > > indication of priority - it's simply what self selected during our > > discussions! The intention is to learn as much as we can from the formation > > and execution of these first few teams before we take on more ambitious > > projects. > > > There's a lot of ambition in this community, and that's a great problem to > > have. Baby steps take us closer to our goals! > > > *How You Can Get Involved!* > > > So who's in? We are learning from experience and building the teams before > > we tackle each project. A few of them have topic managers that have already > > stepped up and needvolunteers. Others need topic managers. And clearly, we > > haven't thought of everything. > > > In addition the ongoing teams, we need a technology team to evaluate the > > system(s) we'll use for publishing and commit to helping us maintain it. > > > We've got a quick form that can give you an idea of some of the topics that > > need working on. > > > SIGN UP > > HERE<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlG...> > > if > > you would like to act as a volunteer or a topic manager, or suggest a new > > topic team that you'd like to manage or be a part of. > > > Myself,Jacob, andJeromeare working together as "coordinators" to keep > > teams moving, assisting in communicating cross teams, helping identify teams > > that need help, and help managers/volunteersthrough issues as we learn what > > works and what doesn't. > > > More than anything, we're here to help teams achieve their self-determined > > objectives. This "meta-team" is alsovolunteersrepresenting ourselves, not > > our respective spaces, so please understand that we're here to help, not to > > control. > > > Onward and upward, coworking friends. We've got a lot of work ahead of us! > > > SIGN UP > > HERE<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGQxdVhHVzBGQVlG...> > > to > > be a part of a topic team, or of course, let us know if you have any > > questions. > > > -Alex,Jacob, andJerome > > /ah > > indyhall.org > > coworking in philadelphia -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
